[ALAC] Panel overload

[Evan Leibovitch]

I don't know if anyone else is experiencing this, but I am starting to get
dizzy at the sheer number of panels, committees and working groups being
formed.

   - Four original Presidents Strategy Panels. launched at Durban
   (originally fivem two have been merged)
   - The co-signers of the Montivideo Declaration
   - A High Level Panel led by the head of Estonia
   - An ICANN Cross-community working group on the Brazil meeting (asked
   for by Fadi at the emergency 7am meeting in Buenos Aires, delivered by a
   joint ALAC/NCSG effort)

That's seven panels, all working independently, and I'm sure I may be
missing some others too. And that doesn't even count the work going on
within the silos of the other Montivideo signatories (I certainly don't see
any attempts at, for instance, bringing together ISOC and ICANN and the
RIRs on these matters).

There are a lot of big names on these panels, and a lot of credibility --
credibility that, IMO, is at risk if the ongoing work of these panels is as
chaotic and ill-conceived as the processes that created them.

Outside of the one that was actually initiated by our community, there are
only two At-Large members -- Carlton and Edmon -- involved in any of the
other groups. This is unfortunate, especially given our early support for
the endeavour when most of the rest of ICANN's community waffled or opposed.

But even more than the lack of end-user representation, is a feeling that
this entire collection of well-meaning groupings and silos have no focus
beyond a vague intent to defend ICANN against the encroachment of
government control. All of a sudden, questions such as "where is ICANN's
civil society?" seem relevant and are being repeately asked.

Given that ICANN's multi-stakeholderism is being trotted out as the best
defence against such encroachment, it is bewildering that that this model
appears to require such a staggering amount of outside help. Where were all
these people before? Maybe this chaotic need for external validation itself
indicates a problem with the model.

All I know right now is that:

   - It's becoming harder and harder to track all the parallel panels, and
   what relation they have to each other;
   - My confidence that this cacophony will produce a coherent defense of
   the MSM, is diminishing by the day;
   - ICANN, after years of single focus on expanding gTLDs, has just woken
   up to a challenge to its very legitimacy that until now has been arrogantly
   assumed. Its response has been fascinating to experience, if not wholly
   satisfying.

My dizziness is unlikely to abate any time soon.

-- 
Evan Leibovitch
Toronto Canada

Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56